Deadlock: A V. I. Warshawski Novel

Sara writes the best mysteries ever! V.I. is a tough detective with lots of smarts and savvy!! All set in Chicago and I could easily visualize where everything was going on!! Sara spins a fast paced story with sub plots...all coming together in the end. She is the master of crime stories and is "right on" !!!! Loved this book as I do all of her mysteries. I literally could not put the book down. Can't wait till the next book !!!! I hope a movie comes out soon!!!

Sara Paretsky, Deadlock (Dell, 1984) Deadlock surprised me; Indemnity Only, the first Warshawski novel, was decent, but it never really grabbed me. Sometime between page twenty-five and page fifty, Deadlock did, to the point where I would spend far more time concentrating on it than I would anything else I was working on at the time. Paretsky seems to have come into her own with this one, and her own is pretty darned good. The novel opens with the death of Boom Boom, Warshawski's ex hockey player cousin, from a fall into Lake Michigan. Warshawski, convinced he was pushed, starts investigating those at his new job at a grain company, and finds herself involved in big corporate corruption; kind of the flipside of the job in Indemnity Only. I'm sure the interest factor, for me, came at least in part because the stuff that happens in Deadlock is simply a lot more interesting to me (the intricacies and mechanics of corporations vs. those of unions being in the foreground), but I do think there was an improvement on Paretsky's part in the way the book is written; the pace is tighter, the characters slightly more complex. The ending once again seems to come somewhere between two paragraphs and a page before it should, but that's a minor thing. I'm starting to see why Warshawski gets so much respect. *** ½

The only mysteries I read feature strong women characters, and VI Warshawsky is one of the toughest. I had read these early books in the series years ago, but the recent discovery of JM Redmann's Mickey Knight made me want to revisit V.I. and her stories.Paretsky has a way of punning her titles and this book is no exception. Deadlock. Dead lock. I had never considered the magnitude of tanker shipping commerce and her invention of a plot to clog one route across the great lakes... oh that's giving too much away. It's inventive, it's thrilling, once I started -- even knowing how it ended -- I couldn't put it down.

The title of this book truly is ingenious. (I won't give away any plot points by telling you why). But I do have to say that there is a scene set in the Soo Locks in Michigan that is truly the most gripping and well-written action scene that I have ever read in a V.I. (or any other) novel. I highly recommend this novel for all V.I. and Sara Paretsky fans.

This was my first introduction to tough-as-nails, but soft-hearted, V.I. Warshawski and I've been a fan ever since. V.I. is a welcome addition to the growing number of female private investigators. Paretsky's tale is tautly plotted, with ever-increasing tension. Hope she writes another V.I. book soon.